The convergence of cellular communications and the Internet has led to mobile terminals that support voice communications and provide access to the Internet being ubiquitous. It is now commonplace for users of these mobile terminals to access web-based services and retrieve various types of information, ranging from local weather reports and news to movie listings and restaurant locations. The information available through the Internet is seemingly unlimited. In many instances, the location of the user can be used to tailor the information provided to the user in response to a query. A search for a movie listing, restaurant location of a regional chain, weather report, or the like is generally much more useful when the information returned to the user has taken the user's location into consideration, since a user is often most interested in movies, restaurant locations, weather, and the like that are close to their current location. Even when a user isn't aware that location specific information may be available in response to certain queries, many web-based service providers are capable of providing more pertinent information in response to these queries when the location of the user is known.
Communication service providers, such as wireless telephone service providers, generally have ready access to the current locations of the mobile terminals that they support. The communication networks that provide the mobile communication services almost always have access to information identifying the cell that is currently serving a particular mobile terminal. Based on the cell's identity, the location of the mobile terminal, and thus the location of the user can be determined. Depending on the size of the cell, a location of the mobile terminal may be determined within a few miles of the actual location of the mobile terminal. When the mobile terminal is equipped with a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver, very precise location coordinates may be measured by the mobile terminal and uploaded to location servers that are provided in the communication service provider's network. Further, three or more base stations that are within communication range of the mobile terminal may employ triangulation techniques to determine a precise location of the mobile terminal. Regardless of technique, the communication service providers have access to relatively precise location information for a mobile communications device at any given time.
Although communication service providers generally have ready access to the current locations of mobile terminals, the location information that is obtained by the communication service providers is not readily accessible by web-based service providers that are not affiliated with the communication service providers. Without being provided the location information by the user, it is generally difficult if not impossible for web-based service providers to determine the current location of the user. As such, web-based service providers must respond to queries without information bearing on the current location of the user, unless the user specifically provides location information in association with a search.
Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient and effective technique to allow communication service providers to provide location information bearing on the location of a mobile terminal to web-bases service providers. There is a further need to provide the location information to the web-based service providers in association with a user sending a query to the web-based service providers. There is still a further need to allow such sharing of the location information in a secure and authorized manner.